


Flights of Fancy

by Gdamnbluepool



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Bounty Hunter, Gen, Rescue, raid, treasure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 06:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16887153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gdamnbluepool/pseuds/Gdamnbluepool
Summary: The Band of Fae go off of decent intel to capture a valuable treasure.





	Flights of Fancy

_This is bad. Nothing is going right. How did this end up soo wrong?_

“This is fine! This is all according to plan!” Tori exclaims to her comrades as a crimson blaster bolt ricochets off a nearby wall. At close to 2 meters of feline muscle and fiery temper, the captain of the _Faerie’s Wings_ hugs the cover she had dove behind to evade the red laser bolts aimed at taking her life. Her nose twitches slightly as she rubs a tawny fur covered cheek. She had her hair in a battle braid and a large black bantha leather coat hiding the armor she wears to protect herself. In her right hand gleams a custom DE-10 blaster with a black outer casing embellished with silver detailing, Freya. She peeks out slightly and takes a few shots at the enemy who was laying down a steady stream of blaster bolts at her. Things could be worse off than they were. She hadn’t been shot yet so today was still a good day.

“If you say so, Boss Lady. Only question I have is, what do we do now?” Vaan’s voice through the earpiece she is wearing. He was in a different part of the compound that they were attacking, presumably under fire as well. “Well, we gotta get closer and take care of their bruisers,” the Farghul woman replies as she ducks behind cover as the enemy slaver takes another shot at her. She grits her teeth and growls. The intel about the base being here had been spot on. She should have gotten more information about the defenses themselves, but there had been no time. The cargo was going to be moved soon and this was the last time to strike.

Tori snarls as another near hit sends burning shrapnel into her face. “Kriff it, we don’t have time for this. Hit them hard and hit them fast. Leave none standing!” she growls into the comlink as she pushes off the wall, holstering her blaster as she rounds her cover. She spots her target, a brutish looking Trandoshan with mottled green/black scales and brilliant orange eyes. The large saurian creature roars a challenge as it levels its blaster rifle at her. Tori smirks a little as she suddenly rushes the being. The slaver levels its rifle with her and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens. It squawks in surprise as it looks down at its weapon, hitting the casing to no avail. By the time it looks up again, Tori’s fist slams into its delicate snout. It lets out a hiss of displeasure as it reels back in pain, grasping at its damaged nose. Tori grasps the barrel of the blaster rifle and wrenches it free of the lizard being’s grasp before spinning around and swinging the weapon into the recovering opponent’s head. The butt of the rifle slams into the lizard’s head with a satisfying crunch and the slaver drops to the ground.

The captain looks at the bent rifle and shrugs before she drops it on the corpse. “Moving towards the center of the compound,” she announces as she makes her way through the halls. “Roger roger, Cap. By the way, I’ve taken out the engines to their transports. They won’t be moving any cargo any time soon,” responds Laz’uli’s voice. Tori frowns slightly upon hearing the accent of her crewmate’s voice, a telling sign that she was agitated about something. She puts it from her mind as she comes to a sealed door. She gives it a once over before hitting the keypad. The door slides up without protest. “Good job on those doors, Laz. Earning your pay today,” Tori teases, eliciting a small spot of laughter from the other. The captain resumes her hurried pace, making it a good distance before the sound of blaster fire reaches her sensitive ears. She narrows her eyes and heads towards the sounds, sure that it was one of her allies who had run into yet another firefight. 

She soon finds herself in the doorway to a room that emits the scent of burning metal. She draws one of her DE-10 blasters and peeks around the corner. She watches as familiar horned male in a navy blue and gold battlesuit dance between bolts of red death as the lanky Trandoshan tries to drop him. Vaan weaves back and forth through the stream of fire, helmeted head bobbing to some unheard beat. He was clearly enjoying himself, as per his usual. Her weaponsmith/armorer was good with most anything that you put into his hands, but he still loved to get in up close and personal. His armor reflects that. A navy blue flightsuit with a bit of yellow trim and dark blue armor on his chest, arms, and legs with gold emblazoned emblems. It was enough to protect most of the vitals, but crafted in such a way that it didn’t hinder his ability to move. But his crowning achievement, literally and pun intended, is the navy blue helmet topped with eight golden horns in two symmetrical lines running along where the parietal ridge of his skull would be.

Tori couldn’t help but be amused at the male’s prowess as he closes the distance between himself and the Trandoshan. The lizard lets out a roar as Vaan steps in close and swings the heated barrel of the rifle at him. Tori’s weaponsmith easily dodges the wild swing and gestures for the slaver to come at him. With a fierce growling hiss, the beast lunges forward, swinging wildly again and again. Vaan weaves through the swings with the same efficiency and ease as he did the blaster bolts. It is always astounding to watch Vaan move through attacks in the way that he did. The Iridonian martial arts drilled into him when he was younger had clearly paid off. It is also one of the reasons she hired him to her crew. He had good hearts and could divvy out punishment when necessary. “Don’t play with your food, Vaan. We have work to do,” Tori says into the comlink as she holsters her blaster. 

The helmeted male tilts his head slightly and just barely dodges a clawed hand slashing at his face. He then nods and shifts his stance slightly, his body looking like it relaxes slightly. The Trandoshan roars at him again and moves to swing its clawed arm at his head. As the scaled arm comes down in an overhead strike, Vaan steps in and blocks the swing while turning his body and smashing his elbow into the creature’s jaw, which is dislocated with a sickening pop. The lizard being takes a slight step back as Vaan’s hand comes back and smashes into its temple. The slaver slumps slightly before being caught by the collar of its flightsuit. Vaan turns and hip tosses the limp creature down onto its head, the vertebrae of its neck shattering with a loud popping crunch. Vaan dusts off his hands and throws Tori a thumbs up. “All done here, boss lady,” he says as he bows slightly and gestures to the next door. The captain shakes her head as she heads towards it, tapping her earpiece lightly. “Alright team, I think that we have cleared the inside. Anything on the outside?” she asks as she hits a few keys on the doorpad to open it.

“Nothing that I can see. A few of the Trandos tried to make flanking movements, but I put a stop to that,” responds the quiet voice of her oldest friend, Mythica. Tori smiles and is about to respond when a powerful WHUMP fills her ears and she is thrown backwards through the air. Her coat flares out around her before she hits the table and goes over it, landing facedown. She blinks and gasps as her ears twitch and turn, trying to clear the ringing. Her entire chest felt like it had been hit with a massive hammer. Everything hurt. A sharp ozone scent hits her nose and she coughs and pulls air into her lungs. She rolls onto her back and peers down through the stars swimming through her vision at her chest to see a large blackened scorch marks dead center. Her hearing slowly begins coming back and she could hear voices yelling in her ear. “-ll kill them all!” “Boss lady is down, but I don’t think she is out. I can’t check because of the volley of fire they are pouring out of that room.” “You’ve gotta get to her, Vaan! I’ll come from the landing pad to back you up!” Tori could taste blood on her tongue and she spits before rolling onto all fours.

“Shut up! They are mine!” she snarls into the link. All other participants go silent as her nails scrap the ground. She could feel her tail lashing back and forth beneath her long coat. She was beyond pissed. The adrenaline pumping through system deadens the pain as she leaps onto the table in a crouched position, legs like coiled springs. The Trandoshan, shocked by her appearance, delays firing for a split second. With a feral snarl, Tori launches herself up to the ceiling, a massive blaster bolt passing underneath her as she rises. As the barrel tracks up, she springs off the ceiling to rapidly descend. The massive blaster goes off again, the shot going into the ceiling. Her long black coat flares out menacingly as she draws one of her pistols and fires three times. The first shot hits the barrel, the second fuses the rotary joint, and the third blows out one of the tripod legs. The damaged weapon lists to the side and the Trandoshan using it grunts as it tries to keep the weapon upright. As the slaver looks back up, a pair of clawed fingers pierce both of its eyes simultaneously as Tori slams into the lizard being and rides it to the ground. The Trando screeches in pain and tries to flail at her, green blood spurting from the ocular wounds. The captain doesn’t even flinch as some of the warm blood splashes up into her face before driving her fingers deeper into the opponent’s head and up into the brain. The being’s body goes for an instance before it stops moving completely.

Tori pants and leans back slightly, licking the blood from her fingers. Trandoshan blood had an interesting tang to it. Somewhat earthy, but something else that made it clear that the species was predatory in nature. She smirks and slowly stands up throwing a glance over at Vaan, who had finally entered the room. “Come along then,” she says, wiping a bit more of the green blood off her face. “Whatever you say, boss lady,” Vaan replies with a chuckle, looking briefly over at the fallen Trandoshan before stomping on its throat with a satisfying crunch. Tori stalks deeper in and catches her image in a reflective surface. Her eyes had bled to a dark green and there is still quite a bit of blood on her face. “But first, let’s find a ‘fresher. I want to look presentable when we finally grab that cargo,” she announces as she turns down a hall. The armored male chuckles and shrugs his shoulders before dutifully following her. 

“Tori, are you alright?” Mythica’s voice asks quietly through the comlink in the captain’s ear. It hadn’t taken long to find the refresher and the blood was coming out relatively easily. “Yea yea yea, I’m alright. Chest hurts though, so we may have to see the doc later, but I’m fine. Definitely needed to clean up a bit though,” she says as she looks at her own reflection. Her tawny fur is a bit darker because of the water, but her eyes had resumed their normal gold-green look. She runs her fingers across her braided crimson and magenta hair before exiting. “Good, I’m glad to hear it. You have to be more careful,” Mythica adds, the disapproval evident in her voice. “I know I know, it was a silly mistake and it won’t happen again,” Tori says dismissively as she nods to Vaan, who had been waiting in the corridor. “That’s what you said after the flamethrower incident,” Mythica immediately replies. “And the time you nearly got vented into outer space,” Vaan adds. “And the time you nearly got eaten by that Nexu,” Laz’uli chimes in. “Or the rancor.” “Or the Claw fish.” “Or that dianoga.” “Alright alright already! Geeze! We can talk about my tasty ass later. Right now, there is a mission that needs to be completed,” Tori says with an exasperated huff, drawing a chuckle from the rest of her crew.

After a bit of searching, they finally reach the vault door. Tori breathes deeply to prepare herself for what lay beyond. She flinches a little as Vaan suddenly touches her shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze. She exhales slowly and keys the door’s entry. The metal slides up with a slight whine and almost immediately Tori is hit with the smell of fear and bodily wastes. In the darkened room, she can hear things shifting about and whimpering. She swallows the lump in her throat as she walks in and activates the lights. “Don’t worry,” she says softly, keeping her body posture as docile as possible, “I am here to get you out of here.” Her ears twitch as she hears something fall over. She turns slowly as five malnourished looking children dressed in rags creep out from behind a large container. She crouches slowly and holds her hands out, watching as they cautiously inch forward. A pair of Togruta, one male and one female, two male humans, and a single female Twi’lek. Tori’s heart clenches as she sees and smells the fear emanating from them. She slowly moves her hands back to her belt, causing the Togruta and the human children to retreat, but the Twi’lek moves into a defensive stance in front of them. 

“Hey hey hey, it is ok. I’m not going to hurt you. Here, I have food,” she says as she holds out a few ration bars. The Twi’lek perks up slightly, but still remains cautious as she moves closer and snatches the ration bars from Tori’s hands. She immediately retreats back to her comrades and begins giving out food. “Can you speak? Can you understand me?” the captain asks softly, just watching the children as they quickly devour the ration bars she had brought. “Yes, I speak. The others, they don’t like to. They have been punished many times for it,” the Twi’lek child answers quietly. Before Tori can speak again, the child interjects. “Are you going to sell us too?” she asks, looking directly into the captain’s eyes. Tori feels her heart crack and she has to look away for a moment to stop the tears that threaten to spill forth from her eyes. “No, child, we are not going to sell you. We are here to save you,” the Farghul woman says as she turns her head back to the young girl, “I swear to you on the lives of my crew, we are going to get you out of here.” The Twi’lek processes this and visibly relaxes before turning and speaking to her compatriots. Their faces light up almost instantly, smiles spreading out across cracked lips. 

“Come on, take my hand, and let’s get out of here,” Tori says as she stands up, offering the Twi’lek child her left hand. The girl walks up and takes her hand before motioning to the others. Soon, the five children had linked together to form a small train of sorts and Tori looks at Vaan. “See what you can find. Blasters, credits, anything of value. They won’t be needing it anymore,” she says with a soft growl. The helmeted male nods and gingerly steps past the children and into the room that they had just been occupying. “Laz’uli, you said that the landing pad was cleared?” Tori says as she begins leading the train of children out of the building, avoiding any corpses that had been left from the infiltration. “Yeah, all clear and their ships are inop. Could probably be still dismantled for parts if we could get back here and undo what I did,” responds the slicer. “Good good, I’ll have cheese bring in the Wings then. Be ready, I’m heading your way with some VIPs in tow,” the captain adds. “Alright, cool. Well, I’ve got a little bit to clean up here and there, but the pad should be good when you arrive,” Laz replies with a chuckle. 

“Captain, Phoenix here. I just wanted to let you know that I found something extra that you may want to see. After you have dropped off the VIPs of course. I’ll be in the chow hall,” she says, her voice taking on a darker tone than usual. Tori frowns softly at the thought, but shakes it off. “Alright then. Once these little ones are dropped off, I’ll make my way to you,” she replies as she opens the door in front of her, revealing the landing pad. There were two raiding ships sitting idly on the far western section of the landing area and sitting on a cargo container to Tori’s right is Laz’uli. The Zygerrian had found a nice resting spot in the sun and had something electronic opened up in her lap. Her jungle green flightsuit had dark grey armor over her arms, legs, and chest, but not enough to restrict movement. She has an optic down over her right eye and her broad ears twitch as she catches the sound of Tori approaching. Her head comes up quick and she turns with a smile on her face towards her captain, her green left eye locking onto Tori for a second before drifting to the children she had in tow. 

“Oh! So these are the VIPs you had in tow! I get it now,” Laz’uli says with a laugh, playfully sticking out her tongue as she taps the side of her head with a closed fist. Tori feels the child’s grip on her hand tighten and she looks down to see anger and fear building on the small girl’s face. “You lied to us. You said you weren’t going to sell us,” she whispers in a voice far older than her body looked. The other children also look crestfallen as they spy the tinkerer. Laz’s eyes widen as the optic swings up, revealing the shocking silver color of her right eye. “What? Why would you think that?” she asks as she jumps up, forgetting about the device she had on her lap. The children flinch as the slave collar hits the ground with a clatter, but make no attempt to run, their eyes gazing at the piece of tech now on the tarmac. “People like her were the ones that captured and sold us in the beginning,” the Twi’lek answers in a cold harsh voice, turning her angry gaze up at Tori. Laz looks down and then holds up her hands defensively. “No no no! you are mistaken! I’m not one of those sleemo slavers! I left that planet a long time ago! I am not like them! This isn’t for you! It is for bounties and prisoners!” the tinkerer explains rapidly as her ears tilt back and press against her scalp.

The captain breathes deeply and looks down at the small child. “You see her eyes, little one? Do you hear the sincerity in her voice?” Tori asks as she gestures to the panicking female, “Laz’uli is a loyal member of my crew that hates the stigma that her people’s past has put on her. She hates the slave trade with a burning passion and works with me to dismantle it as much as we can.” By now, the tinkerer had retrieved the collar from the ground and was fiddling with it, distractedly. The small Twi’lek’s gaze softens and she looks over at Laz’uli. She then releases Tori’s hand and the child behind her before slowly walking over to the Zygerrian female. Laz stops her fidgeting and looks down at the child who had marched up to her. The Twi’lek extends her hand up and the tinkerer gently takes it. The child offers an apologetic smile, causing Laz’s ears to perk back up. “See? What did I tell you? She is on your side,” Tori says as the other children slowly follow their leader’s example.

Sudden beeps and whistles in Tori’s ear causes her gaze to go skyward. “Alright kids, watch out. Your chariot is on final approach,” she announces loudly. Laz’uli ushers the kids back towards the captain a few moments before Tori’s pride and joy roars over the landing pad. The modified YT-2400, Faerie’s Wings, banks sharply and comes back around. “Easy there, Cheese. Don’t blow out another stabilizer,” Tori says as the purple and dark grey ship wheels around and comes to a hover overhead. The captain watches as the asymmetrical freighter descends to a soft landing begins cycling down to an idle. The Farghul female moves to stand by where the ramp would lower to, the children and Laz moving to stand with her. After a few moments, the entry ramp opens and begins to extend down, accompanied by harried beeps and whistles. 

“Aww hello Cheeseball, I missed you too,” Tori says as the bright orange and yellow R3 droid rolls down the ramp and bumps into her thighs. She lightly pats the plastisteel dome and gestures to the ramp. “Up you go, kiddos. Cheese’ll show you to the lounge area and I want you to sit tight there for a bit while we finish up here,” she explains as the droid rolls back and rotates its dome to look at the children. It makes a few derogatory beeps and Tori thunks it on the dome. “What was that?” the Twi’lek child asks. “Nothing nothing. He was just welcoming you into our home and saying that he will be on his best behavior,” Tori responds with a grin before adding in a low growl, “Or else…” Cheese beeps grumpily before beginning to trundle its way back up the ramp. The Twi’lek pauses briefly before following the R3 unit, followed closely by the other four children. “Laz, go help Vaan clear out anything good from the compound. I’m going to go see what our hunter has found,” Tori says as she spins on her heel and walks off. Laz nods and heads off, the ramp closing as the two females move away from it.

The bounty hunting captain hums softly, feeling warm and fuzzy inside after safely getting those kids to the ship. She spins one of her DE-10s as she rounds the corner and enters the dining area, spotting Mythica in the middle of the room. Her back is to Tori, but the Farghul knows better than to think that she has the drop on her oldest friend. Tori spots the Hunter’s preferred weapons in their normal places, the Energy Bow across her back and the Dathomiri shortsword at her hip. For this operation, she had chosen a dark grey rancor hide tunic with matching pants and boots. As she turns, Tori can see the etchings of the rancors in her greaves and bracers, as well as her dramatically tattooed face, since she had her hood up. She meets those ice blue eyes easily and raises her hand in greeting to her friend. “So, Mythica, what do you have for me?” she asks as she holsters her pistol with an overdramatic flare. An ice cold grin creeps onto her friend’s face, sending a shiver down Tori’s spine and standing some of the hairs of her body on end. Truly, she is deserving of the title of Nightsister Hunter.

“I present to you, Grossk, the leader of this merry band of slavers,” the former Nightsister says with a slight bow as she moves to the side, the lilt of her tone playing counter to the durasteel edge it holds. On the ground, bound by cable, sits a rather impressive looking Trandoshan. His scales are a brilliant shade of scarlet with deeper violet streaks. Even his eye ridges are dramatically pronounced over his violet colored eyes. Looking closer, she could see that there is blue coloring around the horizontal pupils as the saurian prisoner blinks and hisses in a threatening manner at her. Tori looks over the rest of him, noticing green blood leaking from his snout and a few of his teeth are chipped. “I see he met with a few stairs as you had to wrangle him,” the captain states, the ice in her tone evident. “But of course, my captain. He didn’t want to be cooperative, so I took the…necessary measures to ensure it,” Mythica replies, the sound of cold satisfaction dripping off her every word. “Kssss, you have what you want. Why am I ssstill alive?” the slaver hisses, his voice sounding a bit more nasally than Tori had ever heard from a Trandoshan before.

“Why are you alive? Why indeed? That is a very good question, Grossk. Hrm? Let me think,” Tori states before her leg whips out and catches the bound prisoner in the jaw. Grossk squawks in pain as he falls over, his body curling up slightly as if to ward off any follow up blows. “You are alive, at my behest. My good friend here thought that killing you quickly and cleanly would be too good for you. And I agree,” Tori growls at him as she moves to stand over the male. She then turns suddenly and drops her knee into Grossk’s chest, something crunching as her strike impacts. “How many children have you sold? Answer me, worm!” Tori demands as she places the tip of her blade against his snout. When had she drawn that? Grossk chuckles as best he can with the wounds he had sustained. “Hundreds…thousands,” he growls back at her. The captain feels a smile spread across her lips and sees Grossk gape at him. The scent of fear begins to roll off him in waves as he starts to squirm. “Oh no, little lizard,” she says as she turns off her comlink, “The fun is just starting…”

Tori cleans off her blade and claws as she looks over her shoulder at Mythica, who currently leans against the doorframe of the only exit to the ‘fresher. “I know it won’t undo all the terrible things he did, but I feel better,” the captain says as she dries off her weapon. “Oh, I don’t judge you on what you did. I know what he deserved and what I saw was proper justice being dealt out. I just wanted to ask for some of that hide when you are done preparing it. He did have such lovely scales,” the Dathomiri woman says with a grin. Tori blinks twice before laughing and picking up the roll of scarlet scales that had been by her feet. “Let’s go then. I think they should be done loading up everything,” she says as she turns back on her comlink.

The walk back to the ship is uneventful and they spot Laz loading up the last of the cargo. “How are things, Laz?” Tori asks as they approach. “Just about finished here, Cap. Once this is on, we are ready to go,” she says before tossing a datapad over to the approaching Farghul. Tori catches it and heads up the entry ramp. She looks over the itemized list of everything they had taken and lets out a soft whistle. “This is quite a good haul, once we fence some of the things. We should be set for a bit,” she exclaims with a grin, handing off the roll of Trandoshan skin to the Hunter. “Well that is good. This means we can take a bit of time to relax before our next job,” Mythica adds as they enter the ship, “I’ll be in my bunk.” The former Nightsister heads off to her bunk as Tori heads to the main lounge. She stops in the doorway and watches Vaan for a bit as he entertains the children with stories. Satisfied with how everything is, she heads to the cockpit. “Everything is all buttoned up back here, Cap. Ready to fly,” Laz’uli’s voice says through the comlink still within Tori’s ear. “Good good. Then let’s get out of here,” she responds as she sits down and hits the button to close the ramp. A few moments later, the YT-2400 thrums as it lifts off and makes its way up towards outer space. 


End file.
